It’s a brand new day for the MLS in Phoenix…
By: Greg Swann,
BloodhoundBlog.com
Posted: Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
Category: General Information
Welcome! This weblog exists to document, explore, explain and alleviate any fears ARMLS members may have about the pending transition from the Tempo MLS system to FBS Systems' flexmls system. The contributors are among the most tech-savvy real estate professionals in Phoenix. In consequence, we're totally stoked about the change, first because some of us have come to hate Tempo over the years, and second because FBS is run by people who are deeply connected to the Web 2.0 on-line world.
But: You may not feel the same eager anticipation. We are not directly affiliated with either ARMLS or FBS Systems, but, working with those two organizations, we're going to do everything we can to make this transition not just painless but fun and profitable for you.
Your job? Read, learn, mark and inwardly digest. Don't be shy about asking questions in the comments to weblog Posts or Pages. or subscribe to it by RSS feed or email notification.
You heard it here first: This is going to be wicked cool...
A specific beef: Off-site “virtual resources” should open in their own browser windows
By: Greg Swann,
BloodhoundBlog.com
Posted: Wednesday, August 20th, 2008, 12:00 pm MST
Category: Conversion
Since we are no longer permitted to point buyers to our single-property web sites in the Remarks section of the listing, we have been building “unbranded” versions of the sites to link to as virtual resources in ARMLS.
This is not as time-consuming as it could be, but, of course, we are obliged to keep secrets we would rather didn’t keep. But the unbranded sites at least worked under Tempo.
Not so in flexMLS. FBS is attempting to “frame” offsite resources, which imposes FBS-server-based software limitations on the linked pages. In the case of our unbranded single-property web sites, the CSS of the pages is being clobbered. They end up looking like hell.
Framing any URL-referenced resource makes no sense to me, since the user is giving up screen real estate for content that could just as easily be opened into a new browser tab.
This would be my preference, to have all off-site “virtual resources” open into their own browser tab. Even where it is not failing, framing these web pages is needlessly constraining.
Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate marketing, technology
My blossoming love affair with flexMLS, the new MLS system adopted by the Arizona Regional Multiple Listings Service
By: Greg Swann,
BloodhoundBlog.com
Posted: Friday, August 15th, 2008, 9:45 pm MST
Category: ARMLS, Conversion, flexmls Web
This
is the F.Q. Story Historic District in Downtown Phoenix as rendered by the flexMLS MLS system recently adopted by the Arizona Regional Multiple Listings Service. ARMLS is 30,000 Realtors working in the fifth largest city in the U.S. — and the 14th largest market area — so this is a big MLS system by any measure.
This particular map looks a whole lot better on the screen. I had to scale drastically to get it to fit here. Here’s the good news: You can see it for real, live, on a “portal” that I built for this post.
Do this:
Go here.
Your user name is: Jack Swilling
Your password is: demo
Please don’t reset the password, or no one else will be able to get in. For all of me, I would make passwords optional, but that’s only because I hate them with the passionate heat of a thousand suns — no big deal.
I built this search to show off just a little bit of what flexMLS can do. I’m not even a good tour guide on the subject. Cathy has a much richer base of experience than mine. For all the gee whiz technology we talk about around here, I am not an early adopter. The words you are most likely to hear from my mouth, when discussing new technology, are “mission critical,” and I won’t risk a mission critical function on something new until it is completely tested. I’ve been in love with the iPhone for 19 months — and I’m getting mine next week.
But, even so, this software is cool.
In the photo (or in the map view in the portal), you will see that I have defined F.Q. Story as three irregular polygons. Why? Because Realtors can’t spell. In principle, I should be able to use the “Subdivision” field in the MLS listing — but I don’t trust it. If the address is mapped correctly — and flexMLS makes it difficult to map a home improperly — it will show up in a polygon search.
And because I can use multiple non-contiguous irregular polygons to define a search, I can base my search of Story on market realities. How’s that? The priciest properties in Story are in the top-right polygon. People in that part of the Story call the homes in the top left polygon “West Side Story” — this because the homes west of 15th Avenue are smaller, newer, sit on smaller lots and have the I-10 Freeway looming over them. People living west of 15th Avenue don’t like to talk about it, but their homes sell for less money.
The same goes for the polygon south of the freeway. The historic preservation movement in Phoenix got its start when the I-10 plowed through two streets of unique historic homes in Story. The region south of the freeway hasn’t recovered as well as its counterpart due north.
These are economic facts based on a hard-headed knowledge of the inventory. By defining Story as three separate polygons, I can isolate my searches to just the areas I’m interested in. If I have a buyer who wants Story-without-footnotes-or-caveats, I can kill the two lower-priced polygons and isolate my search to only the toniest homes. If I’m listing west of 15th Avenue, I can isolate to that one polygon to compare apples-to-apples.
Just that little bit of flexMLS totally rocks, but you can’t let me play with software without getting a wish list. I wish the polygons went down in different — selectable — colors, to make visual distinction easier. I wish they were nameable. I wish they were editable — without having to delete and redraw and without being stoopid like the editable polygons in Google Maps. I wish they could be turned on and off, instead of just being there or not-there. All that notwithstanding, map-based polygon searching in flexMLS is pretty damn good.
But wait. There’s more. I am a geek by predisposition — a high-D INTJ, a very demanding, very exacting boss. But I am a salesman by profession. And as cool as that map is, it’s just a tree. The forest in flexMLS is that portal. If you didn’t check it out before, do now. What you’re seeing is an amazingly powerful sales tool. The Truzillios have it all over FBS Systems for graphic appeal, but that portal is just an incredible “touch” — in the language of selling.
Like this: I send you the search of your ideal homes. The when we talk on the phone, I encourage you to fire up the portal. I open up my identical version from within flexMLS. Now we can set up our results to display the same houses in the same order and go through them one-by-one. I can tell you about subdivisions, orientation, positive and negative aspects about the local government. I may even have been inside that home in the past. I may have pictures from previous visits. This is an incredibly powerful sales tool. Not only can I work with you to get us down to a really useful short list of homes to look at, just by talking about specific houses I can pull out those previously-unmentioned must-have features or deal-killer objections.
The way the portal is set up, with absolutely everything available on every house, continuously updated as facts change in the MLS system, makes it a hugely valuable tool for working with buyers.
Now stop and think. Let’s comp homes with sellers. Now I’m back to schlepping a laptop, because I will want to be able to set up a comps portal, then go through it house-by-house with sellers. No more stacks of papers and hand-waving speeches. “Please look at the photographs of these recently sold houses and tell my again why your home should sell for $25,000 more?” That’s a show-stopper.
There is CMA software in the flexMLS system that is as good as the stuff appraisers use — and I don’t care. I’m a high-D and I will never comp a house that rigorously. Cathy will, and when we add a high-C for the administrative tasks, I will benefit by those rigorous CMAs. But I am a salesman, and I am here to tell you — here in Phoenix and nationwide — that flexMLS is a killer sales tool.
I’m just growing into the software — mission critical first and always, so I don’t let new things come between me and the tasks that must be accomplished. There are things I haven’t figured out yet, and other things I’m kludging my way through. It’s possible I’ll write more about it in the future. But making this change was a big, gutsy move by ARMLS President Gary Cumiskey. The man is to be commended for his fortitude, but give him credit — he was right. flexMLS is a very useful tool for selling real estate.
PS: Colonel Jack Swilling was the founder of Phoenix. He’s been dead since 1880, so I didn’t think he’d mind my borrowing his name. Michael Wurzer of FBS Systems points out that, as a matter of policy, flexMLS portals should not be shared publicly. The F.Q. Story portal shown here is presented for demonstration purposes only.
Technorati Tags: arizona, arizona real estate, phoenix, phoenix real estate, real estate, real estate marketing, technology
New FlexMLS system is a bold stride into the twenty-first century for Phoenix-area Multiple Listings Service
By: Greg Swann,
BloodhoundBlog.com
Posted: Tuesday, August 5th, 2008, 1:52 pm MST
Category: ARMLS, Conversion
This is my column for last week from the Arizona Republic (permanent link).
New FlexMLS system is a bold stride into the twenty-first century for Phoenix-area Multiple Listings Service
Metropolitan Phoenix got a brand new MLS system this week. MLS is the Multiple Listings Service, the system by which Realtors share their listings with one another. Until this week, the Arizona Regional Multiple Listings Service had been using a computing system called Tempo to share listings. As of this Monday just past, we have switched to the FlexMLS system.
Had you guessed that something had changed? If your Realtor has been sending you listings from a saved search, or if you had been receiving updates to a Tempo Gateway, all that stopped on Monday morning. Chances are your agent has spent much of this week rewriting searches and reestablishing gateways. The FlexMLS system is more robust than anything we’ve had before, but it’s also quite a bit more complicated. It may take a while before things get back to normal.
So why make the switch? For one very good reason, to tap into that much more robust technology. Tempo permitted a crude kind of map-based search, but FlexMLS allows you to select houses from within multiple non-contiguous irregular polygons. So, as an example, I can search for homes that are either within walking distance of Apollo High School or within walking distance of Valley Metro bus lines servicing Apollo High School.
There’s more: The FlexMLS pricing software is comparable to the tools appraisers use. Realtors will have to stretch themselves to learn how to tap this power, but our Comparative Market Analyses are going to be painstakingly accurate.
But not without some growing pains. ARMLS is by far the largest MLS system FlexMLS has taken on so far. This first week has been a trial for the North Dakota company — a strain on their servers, and, no doubt, a strain on their tech support staff as well.
And workaday Realtors are sharing the pain. No doubt many are grumbling, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” But FlexMLS is a bold stride into the twenty-first century for ARMLS. This transition may not be fun, but it will be a boon to everyone in the long run.
Technorati Tags: arizona, arizona real estate, phoenix, phoenix real estate, real estate, real estate marketing, technology
FlexMLS wish lists: You’re running into problems, so let’s share them and see about getting them corrected
By: Greg Swann,
BloodhoundBlog.com
Posted: Tuesday, July 29th, 2008, 6:47 pm MST
Category: Conversion, Wish List, flexmls Web
I’ll have a positive column about FlexMLS in West Valley sections of the Republic later this week, but I’m sure you all know that not everything is sweetness and light in the MLS world of Phoenix just now.
Here are three issues we’ve run into, so far. I encourage you to document anything you’ve found, as well. There are things I wish were different about FlexMLS, but it is what it is. From here, we need to help the developers in Fargo give us what we need to get our jobs done.
1. Right now: We need to be able to upload photos in bulk. If it’s going to take n minutes per photo, we need to be able to set up 10 or 20 photos in a batch and let it run for 20 x n minutes. I understand that FBS is adding servers, but the software seems to be inherently slower than Tempo. We cannot afford to waste time waiting for iterative photo uploads.2. There needs to be a logical NOT operator in any free form text field. IOW, I need to be able to say
! short sale
or
NOT short sale
in the remarks or the Realtor’s remarks, since that’s the only place a short sale is likely to be indicated. Right now, I can type short sale in the remarks box, then negate that in the summary. The problem with that is that I can’t OR and NOT in that field that way.
3. As I mentioned in a comment on the FBS Blog, the logic behind naming and saving searches is faulty. Is there a reason why this wasn’t done using a pure document-based solution? As with Tempo, it is wretchedly easy to clobber a standing search when you think you’re cloning it. This should not be possible.
Pitch in. What else needs to be fixed?
Technorati Tags: arizona, arizona real estate, phoenix, phoenix real estate, real estate, technology
Check your ZipForms templates: They’re probably obsolete
By: Greg Swann,
BloodhoundBlog.com
Posted: Monday, May 26th, 2008, 8:08 am MST
Category: General Information
Here’s a cute bug I just discovered last week:
When AAR updates a form, as it does with wanton abandon, you are obliged to download that revised form into ZipForms.
Hurray! Everything is always up to date!
With one exception….
Any standing templates you have prepared in ZipForms are not updated with the new forms.
You read that right. If you made the effort to build templates in ZipForms, your templates are almost certainly obsolete — containing one or more older versions of forms that have since been supplanted by newer versions — one or more times.
What, you may find yourself asking, is the benefit of using templates, if you have to go through and manually update them every time the AAR (or ARMLS) revises a form?
Good question.
Here’s the real answer:
1. ZipForms sucks. It is so kludgey and buggy that it makes the ordinary run of kludgey, buggy Windows software look good.
2. AAR is not a software company, and shoving a monopoly vendor down our throats — leaving us no opportunity to deploy competitive pressure to get optimal results from our technology vendors — is a very poor idea.
3. If the AAR and other associations would get out of the software business, decent, responsible technology vendors would put ZipForms out of business in no time.
4. Ergo, AAR is not only not helping agents by anointing monopoly technology vendors, the inevitable ineptitude of decision-making by committees of non-end-users is actually hurting working Realtors.
And so the best question is this: Why are we paying good money to frustrate our own interests?
Good grief!
FlexMLS Beta Testing Underway
By: Dru Bloomfield,
AtHomeInScottsdale.com
Posted: Friday, May 9th, 2008, 4:00 pm MST
Category: flexmls Web
A group of us in the land of ARMLS have been testing away with an early version of our new MLS system.
I used to write code for Bell Labs and others, but never made a living as a system tester, so it’s been fun to change seats and try to break the code. It is a totally different mindset.
What I’m finding is that the more I play with Flex, the more ready I am for the system cut over to be here, and be here now. Yes, there are a few bugs, but for the most part, the system is almost ready for prime time. Completing my MLS work double over the past week, both in Marketlinx and in FlexMLS, I’m finding that I just want to stick with Flex.
As one of the agents who has (had) over 900 Gateway reports, I was focusing on all the problems that the transition was going to cause me. With the early notice that we’ve had to prepare for the cut over, I’ve personally made provisions to move to an interim system, so that my prospects and clients do not experience an interruption in service. I’ve had a few complaints about dead links, but for the most part, it just gives me another opportunity to have conversation with someone looking to purchase a home.
….and, I’m focusing on the improvements that will be available to us after the system cuts in late July.
Time Saver #1 - Routing and driving directions
1. Select houses to show.
2. Click on Directions button.
3. Wha-la!
The Foreclosure Blackhole So Dark Not Even Light Can Escape
By: Robert Nield,
HomeSearchByMap.com
Posted: Thursday, April 17th, 2008, 3:23 pm MST
Category: General Information
I’m a stats guy. I love crunching numbers, but sometimes it is difficult to comprehend what the numbers truly mean without a good visual representation . For the last couple of weeks I have been developing a foreclosure site using Google Maps. I’ve discovered some interesting things about the foreclosure market in Phoenix. This picture represents just the lender owned properties (not even short sales) on the MLS in the Phoenix area. Even with my neighborhood near the “eye” of the black hole I cheer myself up every morning by telling myself MOST if not ALL of these homes will need to be sold this year. In the mean time, “Welcome to Countrywide Arizona”.
Now that ARMLS has its own weblog for the flexmls transition, how should The Phoenix Real Estate Technology Exchange refocus its efforts?
By: Greg Swann,
BloodhoundBlog.com
Posted: Wednesday, April 16th, 2008, 7:36 am MST
Category: ARMLS, Conversion, General Information, flexmls Web
When we started this weblog last October, my own objective was to have a place where tech-savvy Phoenix-area Realtors could discuss technology issues, sharing that information with our less tech-obsessed brethren. The expedient impetus was the ARMLS transition to flexmls, but at the time we also discussed the deplorable state of ZipForms and the advent of transaction management software at AAR, among other issues.
Almost immediately, ARMLS asked to be involved. This struck me as being uncharacteristically wise on its part, but it entailed compromises that are not completely satisfying for a weblog. There’s a bright line distinction between organizations that must speak with one voice and looser associations that welcome multiple points of view. ARMLS seemed to be so hamstrung by what it could not say, that, as is obvious in retrospect, what began as an egg in an apple blossom could not become anything other than a worm in the apple.
From my point of view, both ARMLS and FBS Systems have been amazingly niggardly with information. Possibly this is baked in the cake: The information is simply unavailable. But I had anticipated that we would have had quite a bit more to talk about around here — not just by now but months ago.
And turning the tables, it is plausible to me that the kind of wide-open discussion that is so avidly desired in the weblogging world is anathema to ARMLS, to FBS or to both. That much is alien to me. We stand to learn a lot more from people who oppose our positions than from those who echo them, but it’s hard to fault hierarchical organizations for being hierarchical.
In any case, ARMLS, at least, has pulled out. You will have had spam earlier this week announcing the creation of newarmls.com, a static web site with an integrated weblog devoted to the dissemination of information about the flexmls transition.
Okayfine. That’s their business, and they’re welcome to it. The topmost post in the weblog, as I write this, is a patented ARMLS scolding, and, speaking for myself, I like that sort of thing much better there than here.
And that’s as may be. The question before the house is a simple one: What now?
I have attempted with what one might describe as marginal success to pin this down de jure, but it becomes obvious that whatever alliance we had forged with ARMLS is now defunct de facto. In effect, ARMLS has taken its bat and ball and gone home. This is perfectly fine, and they wouldn’t have done it if it didn’t make sense to them strategically.
The question is: What makes sense for us as strategy?
We are back to square one in the sense that we are free to discuss whatever we choose about real estate technology, without any fear of stepping on ARMLS’ toes. Is this something that people here want to do?
Perhaps naively, I had expected us to attract more attention from the 30,000 members of ARMLS. And, while we do have quite a few subscribers, the blog itself has been all but moribund.
It’s plausible to me that this is the result of our having focused on ARMLS and flexmls, despite the dearth of information emerging from them. For example, no one has written anything about the new AAR transaction management system.
But it’s also plausible to me that The Phoenix Real Estate Technology Exchange is a solution in search of a problem — that, as much as Realtors’ lives might depend on technology, they would rather focus their attention on other issues.
For my own part, I already have a much bigger rostrum from which to express myself. My own involvement with this weblog was to promote a better understanding of real estate technology among agents who don’t live and breathe technology.
What about you? We’re free to do what we want, but do we actually want to do anything at all? It’s perfectly okay with me if we don’t — my own bread will be buttered even if no one else’s is. But we have managed to accumulate an interesting group of people, and there is that lingering problem of the tech revolution in real estate.
If you want to proceed with this project: Proceed. We’re divorced from what seemed to be a potentially-fruitful alliance but may have turned out to be a conspiracy of silence.
So: What next?
Technorati Tags: arizona, arizona real estate, blogging, disintermediation, phoenix, phoenix real estate, real estate, real estate marketing, technology
See FlexMLS Live and in Person
By: Dru Bloomfield,
AtHomeInScottsdale.com
Posted: Monday, March 31st, 2008, 8:29 am MST
Category: flexmls Web
I’m involved with the Scottsdale Area Association of REALTORS® and helping to organize a Technology Symposium schedule for the morning of April 25th.
In addition to guest speaker Keith T. Garner, Managing Director at the Center for REALTOR® Technology, the symposium will feature four breakout sessions, one of which is dedicated to a live demonstration of FlexMLS by Sheila Strunk. Sheila was on the selection committee for the new MLS system and has a significant amount of hands-on experience with FlexMLS. She’ll give you a very good sense of the system’s capabilities, and you will be able to ask questions.
Mark your calendar and consider attending the symposium, so you can see a live preview of FlexMLS. Getting a jump on the possibilities of FlexMLS will make the transition just that much easier.
flexmls Web Preview
By: Michael Wurzer,
flexmls.com
Posted: Friday, March 28th, 2008, 3:17 pm MST
Category: Video, flexmls Web
Here’s another video previewing flexmls Web. The video provided earlier wasn’t loading well for IE users, so we’re tying this one out. Let me know if you have any trouble viewing it.
Single Property websites in Realtor Remarks
By: Cathleen Collins,
DistinctivePhoenix.com
Posted: Friday, March 28th, 2008, 11:41 am MST
Category: General Information
As Greg has already pointed out, we were perplexed with the new MLS rule against promoting single property websites in the MLS. One of BloodhoundRealty.com’s value propositions is our transparency… We are anti-hoarders of information. So moves like this new MLS rule seem antiquated, backwards to us. Give people as much information as they can stand and allow them to draw their own conclusions, make informed decisions. Oh well. If we want to work in the residential resale business in the Phoenix market, we have to abide with this stogy old institution that does its best to make sure its members don’t aspire beyond status quo.
So, I reread the rules when I input my listing for 1322 East Vermont Ave. this morning. I want to give my clients as broad an opportunity as possible to sell their home. It became clear to me that our MLS isn’t afraid of Realtors giving information to Realtors. This being the case, I told buyers’ agents about the single property website. I reason that if I were the buyer’s agent I would give this information to my client, so she would have as much information as she could stand to make a better informed decision.
Roll call of Third Party IDX providers
By: Craig Frooninckx,
Posted: Monday, March 24th, 2008, 3:02 pm MST
Category: Wish List
Okay, so I’m curious about the third-party IDX companies everyone is using. I’d like to know who you use, who you’ve used? What you like and don’t like about them. I’d also be curious about those that you would like to use, but are not currently partnered with ARMLS.
No more web sites in the remarks section? ARMLS drops the hammer on the one little bit of the 21st century it was getting right
By: Greg Swann,
BloodhoundBlog.com
Posted: Thursday, March 6th, 2008, 12:41 pm MST
Category: General Information
I read about the outlawing of web site URLs in listings on the “Welcome to Tempo” page of the Arizona Regional Multiple Listings Services (ARMLS), but I wasn’t certain it meant what it seemed to mean. Since I have been a Realtor, we have promoted our single-property websites in the remarks section of the listing, as have many other agents. It seemed odd to me, given how anal ARMLS had been about contact information in virtual tours, but I thought it was a laudable concession to real life in the third millennium.
We talk in web sites — Bloodhound Realty does, particularly. We live in webbed-wide world. This is news to no one. The appropriate way to talk about houses is in web sites. Hurray for ARMLS! It doesn’t really “get it,” but it gets at least some of it.
Not so.
Comes today this email:
Thursday, March 06, 2008Gregory Swann ABR CRS GRI,
Our new iCheck program identified the following Error. The Error and any related verbiage was removed on Thursday, March 6, 2008.
MLS#: 0000000 TEMPORARILY OFF MARKET/RES
Error: MLS Rule Error (000)
Description: Prohibited URLNo further action is required by you at this time.
Thank you for complying with the ARMLS Rules and Regulations.
I know, I know, you don’t have to tell me. I understand, I just don’t approve.
First, this is an artifact of the co-broke, the archaic practice of buyer’s representatives being paid by the listing agent. If commissions were divorced, all of the Top Secrets of the MLS system — every one of which is a violation of the buyer’s agent’s fiduciary duty to put the buyer’s interests ahead of all others (which most certainly includes the seller and the listing agent) — would be swept away like the dusty relics of the anti-capitalist era that they are.
Second, the specific purpose of forbidding web site URLs in listings is to impose an artificial chokepoint on the free market. Buyer’s agent’s seek to hold their own clients hostage in the transaction. In order to secure their own compensation, they will withhold the fact of the buyer’s existence and identity from the seller or the listing agent, at the same time that they are withholding information about the existence and identity of the seller or listing agent from their own buyers — toward whom they owe an unlimited fiduciary duty. I think this is an agency violation in se — a complete betrayal of the buyer’s true interests — and ARMLS makes itself a party to it by deliberately withholding material facts from buyers.
I don’t like lawyers and lawsuits, but I cannot imagine how the MLS system, nationwide, could be any more exposed to a massive class-action lawsuit. Buyer’s agency is a farce as long as these rules are in place. It is simply sub-agency in camouflage. The first attorney to figure that out is going to retire rich.
Technorati Tags: arizona, arizona real estate, blogging, disintermediation, phoenix, phoenix real estate, real estate, real estate marketing, technology
Custom Reports and Gateway
By: Dru Bloomfield,
AtHomeInScottsdale.com
Posted: Tuesday, February 26th, 2008, 4:40 am MST
Category: Wish List
I learned something at last week’s ARMLS Committee meeting that is slowing sinking into my consciousness.
This I knew: Custom reports will not be ported over, and will need to be re-created.
This was the “oh-no”: FlexMLS does not have a Gateway equivalent web portal.
The good news: ARMLS has opened the third party vendor door, and I’m expecting some exciting announcements as agreements are crafted. (Thank you!)
The Challenge: A replacement product for those of us who are Gateway users. Clients who use it love it. I’ve found it to be an especially great tool for sharing housing info with buyers who are geographically separated while house shopping.
Michael and Bob, I’d love to be wrong here. Readers, any recommendations for third part solutions?
Wow, people still don’t know FlexMLS is coming to ARMLS
By: Craig Frooninckx,
Posted: Wednesday, February 13th, 2008, 12:07 pm MST
Category: Conversion
At the end of last week, I found myself in conversation with some members of the ARMLS user community and as I usually do, I talk about the things that are happening in my world, which includes real estate, new status as a father, politics and my role on the ARMLS committee. I mentioned that we’re moving along and that we’ve since a delay in the rollout of FlexMLS, nothing that sent up a red flag or anything. Their response was, “What’s FlexMLS?” Okay, then I realized that until I get really deep into ARMLS, I didn’t know we were switching either.
So being a good ARMLS committee member I started explaining the situation to them and the benefits of the new system and I even explained that the transition would be a bit challenging. I referred them to this site for threads and discussion on the matter.
Later as I was reflecting on the discussion and realized that I really didn’t give them that much to work with. I think that we missing a nice project page (blog) that gives updates as to how the transition is progressing and a FAQ, what to expect type page. I for one would like to know how I can prepare my website to work with the new system (if there is anything that I will have to do).
What do you think, do you have enough information or are you looking for more?